Why does the world feel wrong?

As good an explanation as any I've seen...

In the book Political Ponerology, Andrew Lobaczewski claims that about 6% of the people within a population have psychopathic characters. The implications of this, which he recognized soon after World War II, stagger the mind. Moreover, he suggests that another 12% of the population has high susceptibility to psychopathic thought. In a world dominated by hierarchical structures, these people sieze(sic) control of the key positions and create a so-called “pathocracy.” Lobaczewski continues, writing in ways that clearly anticipate the current reality:

Within this [pathocratic] system, the common man is blamed for not having been born a psychopath, and is considered good for nothing except hard work, fighting and dying to protect a system of government he can neither sufficiently comprehend nor ever consider to be his own. An ever-strengthening network of psychopathic and related individuals gradually starts to dominate, overshadowing the others.

Read.

What To Do About the Coming Depression

Alternatively, you can go directly to youtube
and select a lower quality production to eliminate
the spastic delivery you might find with this version.
(Right hand bottom just below vid frame there.)

Tooth Fairy Economics

The primary fallacy of the tooth-fairy economics at the heart of the stimulus is the very idea that economic health is the product of government spending, which is financed either by borrowing (which leaves private businesses with a smaller share of the pool of savings for them to borrow from), printing money out of thin air, or direct seizure from the population. Whatever government spends the money on is necessarily arbitrary -- government lacks the profit-and-loss feedback mechanism that keeps the private sector from squandering resources and employing factors of production in ways that do not cater to consumer wants. It can seize its resources from the people without their consent, and it makes no difference to government whether or not people actually want or wind up using the things it produces. Meanwhile, the economy loses the goods that would have been produced by the voluntary sector had the government not seized these resources for its own use.

How do you like your beans and rice?

What color would you like your bridges to nowhere painted?

Full article.

Is this the bottom?

Well, is it?

Zombies rule

The stimulus and bailout plans merely accelerate a process that has long since become inevitable: the final demise of our economic system, our economies, our way of life and indeed our societies. No more free markets, no more capitalism, no more global trade or globalization, and no more democracy. Of course most of these things have long ago ceased to be anything but religious deliriums, but don't ever underestimate the power of belief. It will, in this case, linger for a while longer, until it's too late for most of us to prepare in any sensible fashion. And the usefulness of preparations is itself highly debatable in nations and communities where 95% or more of people have not prepared themselves for any sort of substantial change in the conditions of their lives...
...The people with their hands on the triggers and buttons are where they are because the deceased system put them there. They will only execute those measures which they think might in some magical manner revive the dead. Grabbing hold of ever more of other people's money is the only way they see to do it. You can take your money out of your bank, and that's certainly an idea, but you can't keep the ruling classes from spending what you have not yet earned. There is the catch. They got you by the balls.

Not if you Galt them.Full article.

Bottom line is the last line there. Doltitis runs rampant. Cut their hands off.

Zombies rule.

You won't want to be in the cities.

We don't know

A little honesty about much fear...but the possible
results may have been exaggerated.

See for yourself...

A slap up the side of the head

Whether we are considering the patterns of regularity found in the marketplace, or from our relationships with strangers on streets and highways, or, in this case, the aftermath of a disaster or near-disaster, so much of the order that prevails within society arises, without anyone’s intention, as a result of our pursuing other ends. Our politicized training – reinforced by media and government officials – leads most of us to believe that social order is the product of the conscious design of wise leaders, whom the political process allows us to identify and elect. In the face of the wars and economic collapse that are now destroying our world, it is difficult for intelligent men and women to any longer embrace such childlike thinking that is probably a carryover from a dependence on parental authority.

As the events of that day slowly fade, those most immediately affected will recite, for others, their recollections. Capt. Sullenberger will doubtless enjoy his well-deserved hero status with appearances on television and radio programs. The ferryboat operators will likewise enjoy their earned fifteen minutes of fame. Other than memories, nothing permanent will come of this event. Those directly involved will return to their normal work: Capt. Sullenberger piloting other flights; ferryboat operators transporting people across the Hudson.

But the statists will figure out ways to exploit all of this for their narrow ends, insinuating their non-existent roles in the rescue. In an effort to reinforce the illusion that their authority carried the day, the politicians – along with Homeland Security officials – will likely concoct statutes or other rules in an effort to repeat, in the future, the kinds of spontaneous responses that arose, without design. Hearings will probably be conducted on behalf of some proposed "Water-ditching of Aircraft" regulations – to be administered by a newly-created federal agency to be housed in the Department of Homeland Security. Thereafter – and reflecting the governmental responses in New Orleans – woe be unto any future Capt. Sullenberger who dares to exercise his independent judgment should it conflict with government-mandated conduct. Nor shall this agency be inclined to tolerate the unapproved efforts of ferryboat operators – or others – who might dare to act, without prior authorization to save lives.

Full essay.

Jury nullification success

It's way past time the idea below catches on.

A rural Illinois jury has found one of their peers innocent in a marijuana case that would have sent him to prison. Loren Swift (pictured below) was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, and he faced a mandatory minimum of six years behind bars.

...

This jury exercised their right of jury nullification. Judges and prosecutors never tell you this, but when you serve on a jury, it's not just the defendant on trial. It's the law as well. If you don't like the law and think applying it in this particular case would be unjust, then you don't have to find the defendant guilty, even if the evidence clearly indicates guilt.

In jury nullification, a jury in a criminal case effectively nullifies a law by acquitting a defendant regardless of the weight of evidence against him or her. There is intense pressure within the legal system to keep this power under wraps. But the fact of the matter is that when laws are deemed unjust, there is the right of the jury not to convict.

Jury nullification is crucially important because until our national politicians show some backbone on the issue of marijuana law reform, it's one of the only ways to avoid imposing hideously cruel "mandatory minimum" penalties on marijuana users who don't deserve to go to prison.

Full article.

The global financial pyramid scheme explained

Goofyment, that most glorious of granfalloons, is the culprit,
assuring their own destruction while most folkz are looking for
Their Own Special Messiah there to 'make all the bad go away'.

It couldn't have gone better if it'd been planned.

If you've been following this blog and you don't know that by
now, you need to go somewhere else. You've been wasting your time.

...the good, bad and mostly ugly...with graphs.